Armatage Neighborhood Association Meetings

Called to order at 6:30 by Betsen Philip

Safety Update

Keith sent an update from Amy. No crime to report, but did issue a reminder, that with warmer weather eventually coming, please lock doors/garages, even when you are working in your own yard. She also restate the city goal of getting more block leaders. We have 30 blocks in our neighborhood in need of a leader. Tina will forward the list to the board, so we can see if we know people on some of them. Otherwise, we think it would be best to leverage National Night Out (either seeing if those coordinators might be willing to do it, or can help promote it on their block and/or at their event).

Stacy Sorenson, Neighborhood Specialist

Neighborhoods USA Conference being hosted here this summer. She handed out flyers, but more information and registration is online at www.nusa.org. She can help us to create and implement our priority plan, which is due at the end of the year. We have gathered some feedback from our annual meeting, but will also use Survey Monkey and our festival to help us prioritize what – tend to be one page, vary in scope, continuous survey opportunities to gather more info/feedback.

Park Update – Jerry Peterson

Online summer registration started Saturday. Armatage has 16 new sport camps here this summer through a partnership with Revolutionary Sports. The track program continues to grow. The parking lot is in rough shape, and will not have any construction vehicles using it during the Penn Ave project. It was mentioned that the school playground needs more wood chips (Jerry can let the school know). As an aside, the Parade Garden improvements/contract have been approved and are moving forward. Movie night date has been set (but couldn’t remember it off hand), and will feature Indiana Jones.

Neighborhood Officer Elections

Coordinator Update – Tina Erazmus

City Council Update — The rest of Armatage will get their single sort recycing bins delivered between May 1-10. Street sweeping will be starting soon, but is delayed due to weather (watch for sign postings and phone updates). It was asked why the recycling credit doesn’t appear on the bill, is that because of single sort? Tina will ask.

Annual Meeting Recap — With the poor turn out, which may in part be due to the extreme cold, Tina was looking for ideas on what we might be able to do differently. For example, Lynnhurst hosted a social hour (with one drink ticket per attendee, a speaker, and board elections). If we struggle to get a strong speaker, we could consider doing something like this and/or we could try it as a community building event in January/February at a location like Cafe Maude or Cave Vin.

35W Gateway — Penn, Nicollet, Lyndale — Tina shared some images of ideas for these gateways. There are 2 more upcoming meetings. Our board is most concerned about the upkeep/maintenance of anything that is in our neighborhood.

Creek Corridor — The group decided to solicit feedback at neighborhood festivals and markets. To this end, they want to create feedback walls, that they can take to these various sites. They are asking affected neighborhoods to help with the costs by donating $150 for these feedback boards. Motion to give $150 for these feedback boards carries. Betsen, however, asked Tina to mention to them that it would be nice if neighborhood could have access to use these boards in the future to help gather feedback on other project.

Speed update — We have “Slow Down” signs available for free at the park. Tina will post to Facebook and the web site that these are available for neighbors (with a 2 signs/family limit). Please call 3-1-1 to request speedwagon if you see speeding issues in your area. You can also call to request crosswalk repainting (such as at 57/Sheridan) to try to help make our roadways safer.

Treasurer Report

No report to present. Minimal expenses from annual meeting in the checking account and no changes to the other account.

New Business

March minutes accepted with no changes.

Armatage 365 domain is going to expire soon. It costs $10 per year to renew it. Motion made to keep the domain name carries.

Tina asked if we wanted to consider advertising in our newsletter. This has been discussed before, and we have decided not do to it because of the added work it creates for each newsletter, and that we’d rather have our businesses support our festival.

It was asked what sees more traffic the website or Facebook page. At this time it is the website, but Tina is working on growing FB as it allows for more interaction and notifications allow people to keep up with what is going on more easily.